1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner for automotive vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 57-55211 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-30178, for example, conventional air conditioners are disposed below a part of the vehicle instrument panel extending from its central portion to the assistant driver's seat side. A blower which constitutes a part of the air conditioner is located at one end of the air conditioner adjacent to the assistant driver's seat; a heat exchanger for cooling is located in front of the assistant driver's seat; and a heat exchanger for heating an an air distributing chamber are located at the other end of the air conditioner adjacent to the central portion of the vehicle instrument panel.
The air conditioners having the foregoing construction are not satisfactory because, since the cooling heat exchanger is disposed in front of the assistant driver's seat, only a small space is available for accommodating the assistant driver's legs and hence the comfortableness of the vehicle is substantially lowered.
Another drawback associated with the conventional air conditioners is that since the blower and the cooling heat exchanger are located relatively closely to one another, an air flow passage extending between the blower and the cooling heat exchanger is necessarily flared steeply toward the cooling heat exchanger. With this arrangement, air which is driven by the blower is unlikely to be distributed evenly over the entire area of the cooling heat exchanger so that the efficiency of the heat exchange operation is reduced.
A further problem arising from the cooling heat exchanger is being located in front of the assistant driver's seat is that there is no space reserved for the installation of a hot/refrigeration compartment in such an area which would be most convenient. For accommodating the installation of the hot/refrigeration compartment, it is therefore necessary to provide an extra space within the passenger compartment, such as in a center console. Such however reduces the space available in the vehicle and the usefulness of the vehicle passenger compartment.
According to another air conditioner disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 61-232916, a cooling heat exchanger and a heating heat exchanger are disposed in an air flow duct which is subdivided into a number of duct portions corresponding to air outlets and which has air-mix doors disposed, respectively, in the duct portions to control the temperature of air blown-off from the respective air outlets.
With such a subdivided duct and the air-mix doors disposed therein, the air conditioner has a complex construction requiring an increased number of structural components.